Been running cold outreach for a while now, and people keep asking what tools I actually rely on. Not the ones I tried once - the ones open in my browser right now. Let me run through 'em.
For sending infrastructure, MissionInbox is my go-to. Private IP pools, isolated lanes, built-in warm‑up via Warmy. setup genuinely takes under five minutes and your domain stays yours - no one else sharing it on the backend. If you're pushing high volume (like 10k emails a day), start here. But I never put all eggs in one basket - i also mix in Google and Microsoft SMTP.
For sequencing I'm on Salesforge. handles email and LinkedIn in one place, unlimited sending, and the deliverability focus is real, not just marketing copy. The AI personalisation is decent, though I don't use it a ton. Their built-in warm‑up tool is solid and free - way better than Instantly's.
Theirstack gives me intent signals. Job postings and tech stack data basically tell you what a company is actively spending on and when the timing's right to reach out. Underrated signal source. PredictLeads is an alternative, but I like my tool more.
Fullenrich for waterfall enrichment. Instead of running the same contact through Apollo, then Hunter, then ZoomInfo separately, it does it in one shot. Coverage is really good. Waterfall.io is a great alternative too.
Prospeo for prospecting. they just dropped a big filter update - genuinely impressive. You can filter by AI lookalikes, who the company sells to, keywords on their pricing page specifically, certifications like SOC2, case study customers. That ICP filter is something I haven't seen anywhere else.
Exa for research. Semantic search API that understands context, not just keywords. Use it when I need to pull specific company intel at scale without manual work. You can create web assets there, looks like Clay, but you only pay for results that match your criteria.
Browser Use is an open‑source agent that just browses the web on its own. Give it a task, it clicks around and pulls back data. Saves tons of manual work on research-heavy stuff.
AI Ark for lookalike prospecting. Feed it a domain and it finds companies that look like your best customers. Great for expanding ICP when you don't want to just guess. Solid pricing - recommend it if you can't afford the pricier tools.
Clay ties most of this together. Pulls from 50+ sources, runs enrichment, builds dynamic lists and pushes to the sequencer. If you're building any automated outbound workflow, it's probably in the middle of it.
oh, and Claude Code + n8n, of course.
Might do a separate post on infrastructure setup - places to get quality inboxes (both SMTP and Google/Microsoft), warm‑up tools, spam placement tools, etc.
Curious what tools you're using for your workflows?
